Does the Bible teach Hatred or Love?

Does the Bible teach Hatred or Love?

I was at church last night and I had a really bad sleep because of the message that was taught by our deacon. This is my childhood church, I have been going to this church since grade two, and have been exposed to Catholic doctrine all my life. Although I understand what the teacher was saying, I think he missed the message of Jesus while he was interpreting Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple."

Taken literally that would mean that instead of fostering love in my relationships with other people I foster hatred. This is the problem I used to run into with a lot of evangelicals when Christians take this verse literally to foster hatred and bigotry in their heart. The doctrine of justification by faith is used as an excuse to not take the other teachings of Jesus literally and creates an environment of fear, where God's presence is pushed out of His church, and opens the door for man centered theology. In essence man becomes his own God, and need no longer respect and live in the presence and Grace of God. The saints knew that to go the Heaven we must not hate anyone.

When the bible talks about hating people it means we must prefer to be separated from all men and women, of course Heaven will be filled with people who chose God over earthly success, in order to be fully united to God. All it means is that God is to be our first love, but to tell the congregation to hate everyone is a sin against love. The bible also says "Love your neighbour as yourself" and unless you hate yourself you cannot become a Christian, but hating yourself means you love God more than you love yourself!

I know a lot of christians take this verse literally because they feel justified that their hatred for others qualifies them for God's love, but what they haven't learned yet is that no one qualifies for God's love because God's love is unconditional. The church has a really hard time accepting and showing unconditional love because of that damnation thing, and I just want to say that God loves everyone and His plan is that people who love God would live holy lives and live in His Presence, not apart from God.

The bible teaches that the highest form of self-expression is love. This is Mike. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.)

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